From the Ground Up: Calls To Action
Art Sustainability Activism 2023-24

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The UMass Fine Arts Center, the MFA for Poets and Writers, and the School of Earth & Sustainability, are working to create deliberate opportunities to connect artists, scientists, and changemakers. We learn from each other. Together, we reckon with climate change, elevating awareness, recognizing climate grief, and catalyzing meaningful change. Learn more.

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Actions You Can Take Today!

 

Move Our Money: University divestment from fossil-fuel-finance

UMass deposits its money with the top four banks that fund climate destruction (JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America), purchases insurance from two of the dirtiest insurers (AIG and W.R. Berkley), and does business with several asset managers and owners that are deeply embedded in fossil fuels. Tell the UMass Trustees to stop doing business with these climate criminals. Petition from the UMass Amherst Environmental and Social Action Movement (ESAM).




Sign the UMass Net Zero Petition : Add to over 11,000 signatures

This petition from 2021 is still relevant today gathering a show of support for all efforts toward accomplishing a transition to 100% reliance on renewable energy on the UMass Amherst campus.







Join Sunrise UMass : Sunrise Movement - UMass Amherst Chapter

Join this major, national youth movement, co-founded by UMass alumna Varshini Prakash. Sunrise Movement is working to force the government to end the era of fossil fuel elites, invest in Black, brown and working class communities, and create millions of good union jobs.







Join Third Act : Activists over 60!

Join this national organization, co-founded by author actvist Bill McKibben, for people age 60 and up who are backing up today's youth climate action leaders. Together, this community uses accumulated life experience, skills, and resources to build a better tomorrow.




Eliminate fossile fuels from your retirement plan : Align your investments with your values through As You Sow

This non-profit has promoted environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies since 1992. See how various stocks and funds rate on a wide range of issues - educate yourself about the contents of your retirement account, common practices around passive investing methods, and then take action - As You Sow walks you through the steps!


Investing on your own? Get informed! Learn the basics of individual sustainable investing through this free 30-minute course from US Sustainable Investment Forum.

 

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More about Art Sustainability Activism

“We intend for this annual art, science, and humanities partnership to reflect society’s best efforts to address the climate crisis,” says Michael Sakamoto, performing arts programming curator at the UMass Fine Arts Center. “And we want to show creativity at the center of any solution.”

“Artists translate experience into the language of dance, the language of poetry, the language of image and music,” says MFA professor Noy Holland. “A poet is a maker, a visionary who transforms the real — even the hard reality of data — into a vision of what is possible. This transdisciplinary series creates a prism in which what is possible becomes imaginable, both the horrific and the hopeful. The prism is the prism of empathy, the necessary imaginative act.”

“With the unprecedented global challenges before us, it is clear that science alone will not provide the solutions,” says Curt Griffin, co-director for the School of Earth and Sustainability. “It will take fostering new transdisciplinary partnerships and assembling creative teams that fuse together arts, sciences, humanities, innovation, and culture. Our partnership with FAC and MFA is an example of how we advance the conversation towards a more just and sustainable future.”

CURRENT ACTIONS:  On Earth Day 2022, the University launched UMass Carbon Zero, an ambitious campaign to transition our campus to be powered by 100% renewable energy in the next decade. Learn more about UMCZ and our efforts to a low-carbon future here.